U.S. crude oil inventories down: API

HOUSTON, April 19 (Xinhua) -- The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a decrease of 4.496 million barrels of crude oil in U.S. inventories for the week ending April 15.

Analysts expected an increase of about 2.533 million barrels for this week.

The API reported a surge of 7.757 million barrels in the previous week.

Oil prices fell noticeably on Tuesday as demand concerns returned to markets after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut its forecast for global economic growth.

The West Texas Intermediate for May delivery lost 5.65 U.S. dollars, or 5.2 percent, to settle at 102.56 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for June delivery decreased 5.91 dollars, or 5.2 percent, to close at 107.25 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

The IMF on Tuesday slashed global growth forecast for 2022 to 3.6 percent amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, 0.8 percentage points lower than the January projection, according to its newly released World Economic Outlook report.

A severe double-digit drop in gross domestic product for Ukraine and a large contraction in Russia are "more than likely," along with worldwide spillovers through commodity markets, trade and financial channels, the report showed.